5 essential data sets you need for effective location planning

To carry out the process comprehensively, you should be processing hundreds of data sets to draw actionable conclusions that can help make your next store a success.

But, everyone has to start somewhere. These are the five essential data sets you should be looking at when choosing your new store location:

Your locations/competitor locations

Plot the location of your stores, and your competitors’, on a map to commence your analysis.

By visualising the locations of your stores, you can make sure your new store doesn’t take business from an existing branch. You can also integrate drive times and customer locations to find blank spots that you haven’t covered already.

By plotting your competitor locations, you can crosscheck whether a market is unrepresented or already saturated.

Proximity to other businesses/services

Find out which businesses complement yours and plot these on a map.

They might provide a related service, or you may have found out that having one of these stores nearby increases your profitability for another reason (e.g. a restaurant customers often visit after shopping at your store).

Using this data enables you to find the right corporate ecosystem to move into. This can make visiting your store part of customers’ regular routine.

Transport information

Look at all the local road, pedestrian and public transport links.

This will tell you whether customers will need to travel out of their way to get to your store, and how long their journey is likely to take.

Transport information also helps you find areas of high footfall that are likely to attract passing trade.

Local demographic information

Analyse individual and shared traits of people in the local area.

Plot variables including average income, age, education level, marital status, purchasing behaviour and predicted interests. Then, cross-reference these against your preferred customer personas to find out how many potential customers you have within a defined area.

This can help you position yourself close to the most valuable customers, and be used for targeted marketing purposes.

Real-time social media feeds

Review posts on social media platforms – including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn – in real time and log your results.

Conduct sentiment analysis to find out how your product or service is perceived within a specific area. Chart whether there are peaks and troughs in terms of interest, and at which times/dates interest is highest.

This can help you confirm whether a store is likely to be successful, and enable you to allocate resources more effectively.

Use location intelligence software to analyse all of these data sets (plus hundreds more) at the same time. Then, draw actionable insights that can help make your next store a success. With Periscope®, you can do all this, then visualise your findings on your own secure, corporate version of Google Maps.

Trust Periscope® to give you the level of insight you need to optimise your location planning processes.